So today wasn't an "official" homeschool day.  By that I mean I didn't plan any curriculum and we have yet to touch a book.  Today doesn't get a star on the calendar because we don't do calendar on days we don't school at the house.  But today we learned and had fun!

This morning we went to Massabesic Audubon for a "Wee Wonders" lesson on birds.  The teacher, Miss Kim, is fantastic!  While River largely loves collecting pretty berries and leaves outside, Rigel really enjoys the material, which was on migration today.  The kids also got to see fish and frogs which River loved to touch because she's River!

Then back to the classroom for a craft.  Today was making a bird with flapping wings.  River took great care in her coloring to make it a rainbow bird. She normally doesn't seem to enjoy coloring too much, but today she loved it and was very proud of the result.

Then we drove to a fellow homeschoolers house to learn about beavers and see evidence of beaver activity.  While we didn't see any actual beavers, we did see a lot of trees that had been dragged away by beavers as well as areas where they are currently working on trees.

River and Rigel also had new nets that they had never used.  River decided to try to use hers as a hat.... it isn't.  In short, she got her head stuck (with part of the net filled with dirty leaves as well!)  It took a while, but we were able to get the net off in a couple of minutes and the cut on her forehead is minimal.

Rigel greatly enjoyed jumping from rock to rock. River takes a different tact...she just walks on in.  It wasn't long before the water was over the top of her boots.

River decided that all that lovely, goopy mud needed to be experienced. She finger painted herself and her shirt and generally had a wonderful time!

However before getting her in the car I had to try to get some of the mud off of her. I turned her shirt inside out, wiped her arms off with the shirt, and then let her run around shirtless...she's 3 after all.

The place with the beavers also had baby ducks.  River LOVED holding them!

And thus ends another day of homeschooling Velez style.  I'm realizing that I need to loosen up.  That my immediate initial reaction to not go see the beavers because we were going to do "academic" stuff in the afternoon can be let go.  There can be lots of kinds of learning...and it isn't all in books.  So today we didn't read or writing or compute.  But we shared and touched fish and met other children and figured out where a couple new New Hampshire towns are.  It was a good day....mud and stuck head and all!

This another photo bomb of the last couple days of our homeschooling.  We were gone over the weekend at mom's and that was fun too.  I want to write pretty prose, but for now a photo list will have to do.  This week should be exciting though in that we are learning about ancient writing and then going to see the Dead Sea scrolls at the Boston Science museum.  Rigel is working on cuneiform and hieroglyphics.  We are also calling it a field trip day tomorrow and going to Massabesic Audubon and then to look at beavers.  It should be a good week!

Rigel working on his "All about Reading" fluency sheets.

 River wanted to do school too.

Mom was fixing a leak in her skylight.  She invited the boys to come up for a picnic lunch!

Hi world!

 Looking through the skylight.

 Roof monkeys!

Cousin time.

 We read "How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World" and then went to pick apples.

 My little apple picker.

 And mom, the homecoming queen of dandelion leaves!

 Jared in a tree...

 My long-haired, handsome boy!

 Look what Jared found...

I then worked with both boys to make an apple pie...

 River decided to put herself to sleep....she must have been tired!

 Rigel and Jared were flying a kite at Dad's place.  It got caught in the tree....

 Rigel LOVES his 7 month old cousin!

 Visiting Dad!

 Race time...we went to a kids fun run with Rebecca and family.

This morning I wrote "Hi" in cuneiform on Rigel's white board.  I left the key on his desk.  He figured it out and then we spent some more time writing messages to each other.  Then, after a long time thinking about what he might want to write, he wrote a clay, cuneiform tablet that says "Velez Family" to hang outside our door.  Won't the students be puzzled!

Rigel's name in cuneiform....

 And hieroglypics.....

And so with that we start the 3rd official week of homeschooling (not counting field trip days and coop days).  It's been a good ride thus far.  

Wow, nothing like starting a journal and homeschooling and then not updating it for a week!  It's been a busy week, a good one though!

Before I show pretty pictures, I want to reflect a bit.  Before I started this journey, if someone told me this is where we would be 5 days in (not counting coops and field trips), I think I'd be happy with it.  We are figuring out the curriculum and the balance between official and less official learning.  It's tricky though.  Rigel is a curious and inventive kid.  I want to include those traits in our learning.  That said, reading is reading and math is math and yes, we need to do them whether you want to or not.  As your mom I know that once you get more comfortable reading you can use that skill to complement and enrich everything else you do.  But I don't want to "teach" your creativity out of you in trying to give you the skill. With regards to math, it comes harder to him than I expected.  He overthinks it, gets the answer to the subtraction problem (for example) and then writes the equation wrong. He doesn't like me to correct him, but he doesn't recognize it is wrong otherwise.  That said, today he really got the picture graphs we were doing and happily did extra exercises and then proudly showed them to me.

Spelling is fine but super easy.  We are using All about Spelling level 1.  The first 5 lessons don't even involve spelling anything, just hearing sounds and using the letter tiles.  Today we had our first lesson where we actually spelled words and they were all short a 2 or 3 letter words.  Super easy, but that's OK...it gives us time to practice the handwriting.  On that front, IEW PAL writing has been great so far.  It introduces the letters via stories that help explain why they are shaped the way they are. Rigel likes the stories and can't wait for me to tell them to him each time.  Throughout the year it will introduce copywork, basic grammer, and eventually paragraph writing.  We'll get there.  For now, it is nice to feel that we are covering the writing basics in a pretty straightforward and short manner.  I'll take it!  Science is OK.  We've done a couple of lessons and they've been OK but not great.  Today we did go to get chicken eggs to explain parts of a cell.  And yes, looking at books with pictures of different kinds of cells did lead to another conversation about sperm and egg....darn sperm are so interesting looking as cells.  Rigel asked how the male got his special cell, the sperm, into the female.  So we talked about mammals and cats and private areas.  Which led to the most quotable question of the day "mom, so the male basically pees the sperm into the female?"  Yes Rigel, kind of.  More than I planned on telling him thus far, and yet it doesn't make sense to not answer the questions when they are definitely what he is asking.  

OK, now on to the pictures.  Last Wednesday I took the kids to the Massabesic Audubon center.  They have a program for homeschooled kids and another for kids ages 3-6.  I had hoped Rigel would do the older class while I did the younger one with River but the older one is doing a multi-week plot study and the teacher was discussing latin insect names.  Interesting but not where Rigel was.  So he came with River and me and that class is great!  We learned about camoflauge and played games and walked in the woods and found creatures.

The first creature I (yes, I took River's cup for this one) was some kind of water spider with an egg sack.

River LOVES looking at things through her magnifying glass.

And she very much wanted to hold the cup.  Rigel wanted no part of it.

There were so many kinds of interesting fungi!

It was also the day where it was 95 degrees here!!

On Thursday River had her first day of Emerson Preschool.  It is a lovely, play-based program right across the street from our school.  River loves it!

Rigel and I tried to use the time to get our work done and then on Friday both kids went ot the honeybee coop.  It is a really lovely program with a former Montessori teacher.  The kids do art and play outside a lot.  Rigel was reluctant but he has now hit it off with the other boy in the group and they spent hours building tree forts outside.  When I went to pick them up in my leather sandals, Rigel and River wanted to show me their creations. How could I say no (and why would I?).  The kids spent hours playing in the woods, un-damming the stream, and River sitting right in the water pouring water from one boot to the other.  It was a lovely time. Oh, I also learned that River can do simple mazes as honeybee had one out for her.  I have since purchased a Kumon book.  River enjoys it and Rigel was surprised to see the book he used to have again.

This weekend was relatively quiet.  We ended up reading Lentil by Robert McClowsky and doing several of the FIAR activities.  I fed each child lime juice so they could experience what puckering meant.  We also played the harmonica and tonight they played it in the bath.  I leave our FIAR book on the display shelf and River has asked me to read it to her every day since.  I think FIAR may become our weekend school in that it is lovely, literature based, and really interests River.  Rigel isn't as into hearing the story again and again but River is enjoying it and the books are great.

On Monday we met up with other homeschoolers and went to Beryl Mountain Mine in South Athworth, NH.  It was a nice meet up and I am beginning to recognize other people.  The trip was about an hour away, then included a nice walk in the woods before reaching the mine area.  It looks like it was mined many many years ago but has since been abandoned.  There is Beryl, Quartz, and lots and lots of sheet mica.  Boy did all the kids enjoy the Mica.  Rigel largely enjoying hitting rocks with his hammer (wearing safety equipment) and climbing very high rocks.  River just enjoys digging and filling containers.  We didn't find many wonderful finds, but we had a nice time and enjoyed the company.

Picking up big rocks.

Peeling off layers of mica.

Rigel showing his finds.

River wearing Rigel's coat.

Rigel near the top of his cliff.  This rock was 40 to 50 feet high.  He came up here with an older child without letting me know where he was.  My monkey was fine, but we had a frank discussion about needing to let me know where he is!

Our gear for the day (some of it isn't ours, but most of it is)

A very strange dark purple mushroom.

River and the harmonica!

And that is our week in a nutshell.  Oh, today we did an All about Reading lesson on how to sound out multi-syllable words.  It is great!  There is a method to this.  Before now Rigel could read a longer word if he knew it, but they were often a struggle.  Today we learned about finding the vowels, counting the consonants between them, and then reading each syllable.  He can do it and was very pleased.  I am too!